


Taking a Walk

by Jessa



Series: Out of the Sunshine [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, finnlo - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Mild course language (Ben), Prompt Fill, Romantic Walks On The Beach, short read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-12 08:23:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20561237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessa/pseuds/Jessa
Summary: An epilogue toOut of the Sunshine, set a few days afterIce Cream.Finn and Ben’s last night on vacation.





	Taking a Walk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenOfCarrotFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfCarrotFlowers/gifts).

> 'Taking a walk' was the prompt for this, suggested by leoba. Thank you for the prompt!
> 
> I’ve been a bit slack with these prompt fills lately, work’s been a biatch. Still have a few to fill but happy to take on more if anyone has more.
> 
> I’m @Jesssssahh on Twitter if you’d like to get in touch. Hope you enjoy the read!

Finn smiles and attends to the soft way his hand is held in his boyfriend’s. He and Ben are barefoot, their shoes caught loose in their fingers, taking a walk far away from the concrete path, as far as the water’s edge. Chasing an ebb tide the waning moon has pulled, while it’s pulled them. A little bit further out each night, from the foreshore. Like a lure. 

At the waterline, when they reach it, the surface of the bay is as placid as the day they kayaked. And their steps trace the fluxing edge of the ocean, which like their feet leaves prints on the sand that are never quite laid down exactly the same way twice. As the sea licks and leaves layered marbled patterns, with no regulation about them; overlaid organic lines that even in the moonless darkness Finn and Ben can see. 

Sometimes as they walk along, when Finn glances down to watch Ben’s long thighs sweep along the way in loping rhythms, he catches glimpses of greying laces; the crumbling boots in Ben’s hand. Held against a background of an infinite kind of black, the inside face of Ben’s well-adored trench coat. He often wears that at night, Finn’s noticed, even on nights like this, when it’s not cold.

They speak. Or Finn does. Not about anything especially important, just feelings. About lasting. About moments and lasting. About forevers. The kind of talk about feelings and lasting and forevers that are shared on the last nights of vacations.

And then Finn slows his steps but his hand’s still tangled with Ben’s. So together they slow and then stop on the sand at the edge of the tide, and Finn reaches for more of Ben. More than just a few fingers. Dropping his sandals along the way and tucking whole hands beneath Ben's clothes now. Hands that need to be nearer. As close as they can be. Finn looks up at Ben, who must have dropped his own shoes, too, because all of his fingertips feel as though they're between the rows in Finn's hair now. Tracing little paths, back and forth.

Finn searches Ben’s eyes. His own hands run all the way up the inside-back of Ben’s clothes now. Spread wide beneath the blades of his shoulders. And Finn speaks of his family. The significance of them and this place. And Ben stops what he’s been doing to the back of Finn’s hair, and in response he just cradles Finn's jaw for awhile. Feather-light.

And in the way that he does when he means things, really means them - because Ben always means things but because of this way Ben holds Finn now, Finn knows Ben will really mean this, what he’s about to say - Ben prepares himself to speak.

And in those moments - just a couple of breaths - Finn senses that Ben’s words will make Finn feel like no one ever really listens very much when Ben speaks. A sense Finn’s always had about Ben, but which he’s never really explored too much, never really asked Ben much about. So Finn doesn't know the reason. But whatever it is - the reason Ben needs so much for people to not just listen, but hear - it means Finn knows that as much as he himself needs something said now, needs to hear a thing too, Ben also needs a thing not just listened to but heard. By someone who really hears, and who hears him. By _the_ someone.

“This is the only time in my whole life I’ve stayed at a beach that I haven’t totally fucking hated, Finn. This one time with you and your family... And I would come back here with you, Finn, I would... I would go anywhere with you… And I wouldn’t just float away on some fucked-up riptide to get there, either... I’d go there willingly.”

Gently Ben coaxes Finn’s gaze towards the bay, and beyond it. And together they look then at the heads, which signal the beginning of the open ocean. And they look at the red and blue and white lights circling around inside the lighthouses on those heads. Warning not of the open ocean but the dangers of the shore. Not the things that move around but the things that don’t move at all. Finn stares out there as he keeps on hearing.

“And especially if you asked me, Finn... Especially if you asked me, I’d go all the way out there with you, straight out into that... If you wanted me to do it, and... Well, somehow convinced me that doing it would be worth it... Then, that’s just what I’d do... Sea creatures or not, or... Spells, or... Whatever… I’d follow you into that because I do trust you, Finn... I trust you... And I don’t say that to anyone ever, but-”

The kiss they share then lasts, after Finn cuts him off, and Ben lets him do it. And holds Finn as tight as he did in the car park, when Ben first got here, about a week ago now. And while they kiss, the moon and the earth reach whatever points they need to reach to turn the tide from the end of ebb, at last, and back to flood. There’s no more chasing. Now the flood is chasing them.

So the waterline moves, and it starts to slowly fill the wet sand of the far shore again. That’s furthest from the concrete path where they began. Where they diverged from. Sliding between Finn’s toes, and Ben’s, too. As the kiss they share goes on. For maybe as long as it took for them to walk here. All the way from the motel. But the feeling it gives Finn is still going on. That feeling is still lasting.


End file.
